All the difference in the world
by Blanca 'the' Angel Loveless
Summary: 'There are no ghostly vultures that night in desperate need of directions, and Danny isn't late getting home that night. Parents are parents how ever, and they would not be letting their teenaged children spend the weekend alone while they're away at their college reunion." takes place in a universe where Vlad isn't such Fruit Loop.
1. Chapter 1

There are no ghostly vultures that night in desperate need of directions, and Danny isn't late getting home that night. Parents are parents however, and they would not be letting their teenaged children spend the weekend alone while they're away at their college reunion.

Danny wakes up in the middle of the night when his ghost sense goes off, it takes him a minute to realize where he is, a lavish bedroom in the mansion of one Vlad Masters, Affluence Magazine's so called "Billionaire of the Year". Wondering just what kind of ghost could be wandering this far from the Ghost Portal of Amity Park, he mumbled something about a working vacation, and transforms himself into his ghost half. He finds his dad first, wandering the halls half asleep looking for a bathroom, but as he's in no trouble, Danny's contented to let him wander as he goes in search of the ghost that woke him.

His ghost sense goes off again, and he turns around in search of the threat only to come face-to-chest with the one he was searching for. He flies backwards quickly, ready to attack as he takes in the ghost in front of him. His skin is blue, his eyes solid red, his teeth are fanged, and his hair, hilariously, reminds Danny of The Wolverine.

"Danny _Phantom? _What are you doing here?" asks the ghost harshly, accusingly.

"Wait, you know me? How?" Danny asks, dropping his defensive stands, hovering a little higher to meet the other ghost's eyes.

"Of course I know you, you've made quite a name for yourself in the Ghost Zone, Dear Boy. Hunting ghosts makes ghosts very angry, so I'll ask again. What are you doing in my home?"

"You're home? Uh, dude, this is Vlad Master's home." Danny laughs. This is the wrong thing to do Danny finds, as the Ghost growls and descends upon him quicker than lightning, grabbing him around the throat.

"Ah, so you do know you're trespassing. What? Come to shove the infamous Vladimir Plasmius in your little thermos? Now that's just not going to happen!" He threw Danny through a wall.

They battle for several minutes, and while the boy has clearly been dead less than six months-judging by his over use of the ecto-energy blast and little else- Vlad has to admit he's doing well to keep up. Until of course Vlad grows bored of the little pest invading his mansion, and finally deliver the blow that sends the boys to the ground unconscious.

Vlad only has a second to process how young the child is before two white rings envelope him and Danny Fenton lays before him.

"The Ghost Boy is Jack's son?" He says aloud in his astonishment. Then worry takes over as he realizes easily what must have happened to the boy, remembering his own years in the hospitals after his accident. The boy seems alright enough, likely due to a more competently build ghost portal, however he managed to get past his parent to it, being the cause of Daniel abilities, or maybe it was just dumb luck.

Either way Vlad is is more worried that Daniel is not as fine as he seem, and carries the boy, passing through several floors, to his lab in the basement, intent of having his personal doctor check him over. His personal doctor is of course a ghost, as he would trust no living human with his secret, nor does he believe a living doctor would be able to fully diagnosis any ghostly ailments.

Danny waked up before the Vultures have returned with doctor. He looks around in confusion, as he is no where he knows, but this is instantly forgotten as he spots Plasmius several feet away, whose attention is held by a large computer monitor, which has Danny's name and picture on it.

"What do you think you're doing you Creep?!" Danny shouts firing an energy blast toward Vlad in blind panic. He's up in the cot he'd been laid on and ready to fight in an instant. But Plasmius does nothing but block his attack without turning to look.

"You do sound so like your father, Little Badger," Plasmius turns to face him. "But please, let's not continue our little brawl, especially when it's founded on nothing but misunderstandings" he smiles and to rings of black circle him.

"Mis- Mister Masters? You're a Ghost?"

"I am, now I really must ask if you're all right. Had I known who you were, _Phantom_-" his says the name with a hint of amusement "- I never would have fought you at all?"

Danny's stance relaxes, and he gracelessly plops down to sit on the cot "yeah I'm alright. A little sore, but nothing major. So how'd be become half ghost? I was inside my parent's ghost portal when it turned on-well when _I_ turned it on. I think it electrocuted me half to death."

"Your father blew up a proto-portal in my face back in college. Sent me to the hospital for a few years, but as I said earlier this evening I wouldn't be half the man I am today without him."

"That right, it did send you to the hospital!" Danny exclaims, "God, I got lucking then. That could've happened to _me! _Are _you_ okay?!"

"Now I'm doing very well My Boy, but it's precisely why I've called in a doctor to look you over. She should be here soon, but you know how ghosts can wander."

"Your doctor's a ghost? Is she coming from the Ghost Zone? Do _you_ have Ghost Portal?"

"Yes, I do. Would you like to see it?"

Vlad takes Daniel to another part of his lab, chatting with the boy pleasantly all the while. Vlad's portal is rarely open (unlike the one at Daniel house which is almost always open he's told), as Vlad does not want any unwelcome guests ransacking his mansion. But when it stands open as it does now, Vlad has little shame in saying its magnificent.

Unlike the one in Daniel's home, he's told, which looks more like a simple glowing mist behind solid looking glass, but Vlad's appears more like a lava-lamp with green globs of the Ghost Zone drifting into the lab for several feet before drifting slowly back to where they came. It can't be seen from this side, but Vlad tell him that bits of the Human World are drifting into the Ghost Zone as well.

Danny's still in awe, watching the globs float back in forth when a woman steps through the portal. Her skin is pale grey, her eyes a solid sickly yellow. Her hair is made of flames, but rather than rising skyward, the fall down her back.

She introduces herself as Dr. Markey and gets rather quickly down to business once Vlad explains the situation to her. She's fascinated my Danny, and asks his so many question, both the sort any doctor would ask to gauge the health habits of their patient (does he exercise regularly, eat poorly, is he allergic to anything, and so on), and the kind anyone ask someone they're trying to get to know (what's his least favorite subject in school, does he have any pets, does he like Ember's music when she not being insane about it (Dr. Markey does)), as she claims she'll be making a multitude of house calls to him if his bounty hunting keeps up.

She writes down all the relevant information on the profile page Danny had seen Vlad looking though earlier, which turned out to be a medical profile created for Dr. Markey herself to document her notes. Danny's just a little stunned to watch ghost type so casually at a computer.

After her question she subjects him to a basic physical, of both his human and ghost form, doing everything from checking his pulse to having him levitate off the ground. Fortunately she have him do nothing too taxing, as it's nearing four 'o'clock, and he's about ready to sleep down in the lab on the cot in the corner. In the end she printers out her notes for her briefcase, claims him well enough for a reckless teenage ghost boy and schedules a private appointment with him next Saturday to properly inspect the his glowing abilities, saying the only precedent she has for half-ghost power growth is Vlad, and she needs more information.

"But whatever, I'll figure it out."

She finishes with a joking warning to Vlad to eat less sweets she flies back through the lab to the portal.

"Be careful when she comes to visit. Her obsession is biology, not necessarily doctoring, and once she gets studying you it'll be hard to stop her."

"Yeah, but she wants to study me whole and half-living right? Probably the safer bet than my parents."

The next day finds Danny loitering around the reunion's buffet in the white button down and blazer he'd brought without the intention of wearing standing awkwardly next to Vlad and his parents as they greeted the guests. He feels like an idiot, he'd put the stupid shirt on to look nice because Vlad always looked nice in his suit, but all Danny had was a pair of dark jeans and his red converse, and Vlad had barely said a word to him all evening.

"Your collar's uneven Little Badger," Vlad says when Jack drags Maddie off to dance, turning to fix Daniels collar himself.

"Uh, thanks, I'm not really used to this kinda clothes, you know?" Daniel says. Vlad knows exactly what he meant, the boy is so easy to read, but Vlad finds the boys dawning idolization of him reasonable enough given the boy has just learned not only is he not the only half ghost in existence, but that said half ghost is not one of the many, many obsessive and destructive ghosts out there. Daniel himself likely didn't even know yet how excited he truly was yet to have someone with whom he could share his secrets that would truly understand on a level even his two closest friend never could.

"I didn't know you had a son, Vlad," says a woman in green.

"Hello Harriet, it's nice to see you again!" Vlad says with an enthusiastic smile and shaking the woman's hand. "Actually this is my nephew, Daniel, he's Jack and Maddie _Fenton's_ son. Daniel, this is an old friend of mine, Harriet Chin."

"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Danny offers his hand the same as Vlad and continues, smiling "you can call me Danny by the way. My _Uncle's_ the only one who calls me Daniel." Danny can't stop himself from beaming.

The three of them chat pleasantly for a while before, Harriet and Vlad catching up on all the gossip of their colleagues, with Daniel interjecting every now and again, until the woman is dragged off to catch up with some other old friends. Her original words had sparked a bit of a thought in Vlad's head, one that kept circling back to the forefront on his mind throughout the conversation. He'd never thought about having children. The only obsession he'd ever had had been Maddie, and he'd spent so a great deal of time building up his empire that by the time he thought himself finally go enough, she'd gone and been married to Jack with beautiful little girl of their own. He'd had to let her go, and for the better part of the last twenty years he'd never found anything else that held his interest.

No, he'd never before wanted children, but as he thought of Daniel, and all the thing the boy needed now- training in the development of his powers, guidance in the form of a respectable role model, a true and trusted confidant to run to if he ever got himself too deeply buried in a situation- Vlad thought having Daniel has a son would have been a wonderful thing. Yes would be good for the boy too, if he were to at least be Vlad's protégé, and so the billionaire starts the ball rolling.

"Daniel, I've been thinking and would you like me to help you learn about you powers? I could teach you all-"

He's cut off when Danny says "Wow really are you serious?! _Yes!_ I'd love that! Can you teach me how to duplicate myself like you did, _that_ was really cool!"

Danny had been trying to figure out how to broach the subject all day. Having Vlad teach him would be great. He was probably going to learn all sorts of thing, not to mention have someone in his life who fully understood what it was like to lead a double life (or half-life)! Because, sure, he could vent to Sam and Tucker, but they never had any good advice for it. And maybe it was just a little hint of the fact Danny hadn't realize how lonely being the only half-human-half-ghost hybrid had been until he learned he _wasn't_ the only one. He couldn't stand the idea of not being friends with Vlad, it would just ruin everything.

Vlad chuckles at his excitement. "Of course I can teach you that, though not quit yet, is there anything you'd like to know maybe?"

"Well, sometimes I wonder if I was going to keep aging, or if I'd died enough not to, but-" he stops, worried he'd just offended Vlad by saying he looked old.

"Oh, so I'm an old man am I?"

He doesn't seem offended so Danny chances the answer of "yeah, I thought you we're a living dinosaur when you answered the door yesterday." He smiles into his punch refusing to meet Vlad's eyes, lest he break into a giggle fit.

"Yes, I think you'll grow up just fine Little Badger." Vlad answer the question finally placing a hand Danny shoulder.


	2. Chapter 2

briefly I feel the need to inform every one that I have zero idea where i'm taking this story. literally it was just gonna be the one chapter and I don't know why I thought I could make it multy chapters, so don't get your hope sup for so grand thing. mostly im just catering ot myself.

* * *

The Monday after the reunion Danny makes it to Home Room with a merciful minute to spare, and takes his seat in the back of English with Sam and Tucker. Ignoring the slightly surprised look on Mr. Lancer's face, he unpacks his things, fully prepared for the day for once.

"So how was the reunion?" Sam asks. "Did you parents blather on about ghost the whole time?"

"Yeah, but no one seems surprised. Apparently they've always been like that. But guys!" Danny sits up in excitement. "You will not believe what I learned about my Uncle Vlad."

"Who?"

"Oh, well he's not my real uncle, just my parents-" The bell rang then signaling the start of school "-friend, but he's-"

"That's the bell everyone, it means class has started and conversations have ended." Mr. Lancer silences the class.

They're given an assignment that take the entire period, and are told to work in silence, so Danny never gets a chance to tell his friend about Vlad until class ends and they're walking to their lockers.

"So what's up with this Vlad guys, Danny?" Tucker asks.

Danny looks around the hall, checking that no students or teachers can accidentally over here, before whispering "You're not going to believe it, but he's half ghost too!"

Sam and Tucker's shouts of "What!?" and "No freakin' way!" turn several heads in the hall, and a teacher forces them to "Stop loitering and get to class."

"Did he tell you how he got ghost powers?" Sam asks in Geometry when they're supposed to be working on their assignment.

Danny runs through the events of the weekend, from his fight with Vlad before they found out about each other, to Vlad's offer during the reunion to teach Danny about his powers.

"And besides that, he knows so much about the Ghost Zone, he's even got ghosts that work from him, like these three vultures that kinda work as messenger birds, and this biology obsesses woman who's studying Vlad's DNA and doubling as his doctor."

"This is so cool. So when's he gonna start teaching you?" Tucker asks, finishing the latest problem and turning the paper for his friend to copy. "I mean he lives in Wisconsin, that's pretty far from here."

"He says that distance works differently in the Ghost Zone, and that the distance from his place to mine is probably, like, an hour. So he's gonna fly over that way most weekends. Thanks." he adds, passing the worksheet back to Tucker.

The week goes by, and is anything but peaceful. Three different ghost attack during school, forcing Danny to skip classes and his friend to pick up his things. At one point they even have to leave the school during lunch just to help him. They're evenings are packed with hunting, fortunately small ghost, but there is no small amount, and the work to stopping them was incredibly taxing on the trio.

By the time Danny wakes up Saturday, swamped with homework and covered with bruises, he's forgotten all about Dr. Markey coming by. He, Sam, and Tucker are doing homework in his living room, his sister upstairs, and his parents are working in the basement when his Ghost Sense goes off.

The three teens are immediately alert, when a ghost in a ripped-up old-fashion nurse's outfit, and flaming red hair down her back appears floating over the table in front of Danny. There's a satchel slung over one of her crossed arms, and a scowl on her face.

"You said you'd meet me in the basement, and that you'd have your parents out of the house. They nearly saw me exit the Ghost Zone, Daniel." she says sternly, evidently peeved off at him.

"Dr. Markey! I'm so sorry, I completely forgot you were coming!" Danny flusters, standing, "I- can we go up to my room instead?"

"No. We can go to the basement. Just give the birds a minute more to distract your parents." She ducks behind the couch, right behind Danny and disappears from sight.

After a minute, during which Danny explains to his confused friends that Dr. Markey is the ghost that works for his uncle, and that he forgot she was coming today, to make sure he wasn't going to end up hospitalized like Vlad, they hear loud cries from the basement. There's louder shouts from both Danny's parents, and from whom Danny recognizes are the three ghostly vultures of his Uncle's. There's loud crashing that quickly finds its way up the stairs as Jack and Maddie chase the vultures through the house.

"Hey! Vatch vere you're shooting zat!" shouts one of the vultures as they duck into the kitchen to avoid being shot by Danny's mom. They phase through the wall almost as soon the two hunters enter the kitchen, making a B-line down the hallway toward the front door.

"Come back here you ectoplasmic thieves!" shouts Danny's dad as he follows the birds out into the street, followed by his Mom.

"What was that!?" Sam shouts at the doctor as she appears visible once more behind the couch.

"I had them take the ecto-filtrator from Daniel's ghost portal, so your parent's likely won't return until they have it, and the birds are rather good at playing "the mouse" so it'll be a while." the doctor says, heading down the hall back toward the basement.

"What's an ecto-filtrator?" asks Danny as he and his friends follow her.

"This thing," she says, drifting down the stairs as she pulls a little glass tube out of her satchel, "Vlad says it keeps the portal working or something. I didn't really care."

"What? So you just took a piece of the ghost portal that might break it without it?!" Sam shouts.

"Vlad says it can last up to nine hours without it, and besides." she waves the Ecto-filtrator she's holding pointedly in Sam's face.

Danny watches her drift across the lab to a small panel with a blinking red light on the wall next to Ghost portal. She places the filtrator skillfully into the case and Danny's sees the blinking red turn a solid green. She brought a spear for her visit. They'd evidently expected Danny to forget, and had a backup plan. He felt guilty then for likely disappointing his uncle, and promised himself he'd keep better track of when he make promises involving other people right then and there.

The doctor gets to work on Danny quickly, and just as quickly brightens into the cheery woman Danny remembers from last week. Instead of the simple once-over she'd given him before, she first did a thorough examination of his human half, even going so far at one point as to stick her hands inside his chest. She has him running endless laps back and forth across the lab, and Sam and Tucker warm up to her when she allowed Tucker to take her notes for her on her state-of-the-art, as-of-yet-to-be-on-the-marker MasterSoft laptop, and for Sam to man the stopwatch and clipboard for her while she watched him from various angles, making comments on his posture and encouraging him to go "just a little faster!"

Dr. Markey subjects him to more physical activities like push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-up, but unlike his school experience with these sorts of things, she made him take as long as he needed to reach the number she deems enough. It's almost two hours later when Danny is finally allowed a break, but he's sweat through his T-shirt, and can't make himself get off the floor.

"Wow Danny, I've never seen you work so hard in your life," Tucker pokes fun.

"Shut up, dare you to try it…" Danny says, too out of breath.

Dr. Markey, unconcerned with his exhaustion, takes the clipboard from Sam with a thanks for her neatly written notes and kneels down to take Danny's pulse. She puts a stethoscope to his chest next, listening and having him breath. She'd done so before she'd worked him the rest of the way to death, and let him listen to what she claimed was a perfectly healthy human heartbeat. She did this again now, sticking the earpieces in his ears without asking.

What he heard confused him. Instead of a steady, but sped up version of the beating heart he'd hear before, he heard a even, unfaltering, deep humming coming from his heart. The doctor take the end of it off his chest and holds it up to her own, and Danny hears the same steady hum coming from her, well what must be her heart.

"What_ is_ that?" Danny ask, pulling the stethoscope out of his ears and sitting up.

"Just what I thought would happen. It happened with Mr. Masters too. When you human side is pushed to a point it's not accustomed to, your ghost half takes over. That's steady deep humming is the sound of your Ghost Heart taking up the job of pushing blood through your system.

"Pretty cool, huh? You can take a break now, go upstairs and get some water, a snack too, no junk food please. I'm going to check your ghost powers in you human form next. You have thirty minutes." She took Tucker's spot at the desk in front of her laptop as his friends followed Danny upstairs to the kitchen.

"Man I am so jealous of her!" Tucker says as they take a seat at the kitchen table. "I mean did you see that laptop? I looked through some of the programs and that thing is amazing! I wish I could work for your uncle, Danny. Do you think he's looking for an assistant?"

"I don't know, you could always ask him next week." Danny says, eyes closed, and head resting on the table.

"Look on the bright side Danny," Sam says when her friend groans in frustration of his aching muscles. "Worse people could want to study you in worse ways."

"True..." Danny mumbles.

"Danny," Jazz calls all of a sudden from the stair well "do you know where mom and dad are? Oh, hey Sam, Tucker." She adds upon entering the kitchen.

"Hey" they reply.

"No, some ghosts stole something from the lab a while ago, they're out chasing them. You didn't hear it?"

"No, I was doing homework, I had earbuds in. Are you alright?" she asks, then gets a look on her face before she says "Never mind!" and leaves the room.

"Uhh, whatever that was…" Sam comments, making a face at the odd behavior of Danny's older sister.

They go back to the basement when their thirty minutes are up and find Dr. Markey still on her laptop happily adding notations to what looks to have turning into an essay description of Danny's abilities and progress.

She pushes him just as far with his ghost powers in both his human and ghost forms, noting things a directly onto her laptop more often than before. She has him possess both his friends, with their consent of course, with the instructions that they are to attempt pushing him out, to see how long he can last with this. His will does overpower theirs for a few minutes each before his friends can push him out, but the doctor comments that it's good sign for the will of his friends, and that Danny did well for as short a time as his had the ability. She tells them _all_ to practice this exercise more.

She has Sam and Tucker chunking everything from wadded up pieces of paper, to bits of metal, to a few baseballs she's brought along, at Danny, instructing him to dodge them, without turning intangible. He flies laps around the lab at his top speed (ninety-seven miles per hour Dr. Markey tell him) for as long as he can, which turns out to be forty-six minutes. He'd gotten bored of it after the first few minutes, but she's told him not to stop till he absolutely had to. When he stopped he was so exhausted he ended up switching into his human self as soon as he touched the ground.

"Did you do that on purpose, or was that a result of exhaustion?!" Dr. Markey asks, sitting up a little more in her chair.

"Ex-austion" Danny pants heavily, leaning against the wall. Now that he knows what to listen for, he can hear the hum of his Ghost Heart thrumming in his ears.

"Interesting," she mumbles, typing something on her laptop. "Vlad's never done that...

"Okay, so," She continues louder when she finished typing. "The last thing I need are DNA samples, if that's okay with you."

"Uhhh. I don't..." Danny starts. He's unsure if he thinks giving his DNA to anyone is a good idea.

"It's going to have to stay in Vlad's lab, I'm not gonna steal it, or sell it. Please." She begs, hands together, a pout on her lip. "It stays in there. I swear!"

"Sure, I guess… You swear it stays with my uncle?"

"Yes! Yes! Thank you!" Dr. Markey shouts. Flying to her bag she pulls out several items, some of which include plastic baggies and needles. "Comparing Vlad and your DNA make-up is going to be SO. Much. Fun!" she practically squeals.

Yup. Definitely obsessed.

She takes blood samples, swabs of saliva, clips of hair, and even nail clippings from both his human half and his ghost half. Though it was kind of tricky, she even managed to get a blood sample from having him hold himself mid-morph before she finally declares herself fully finished.

"Thanks for today Daniel, really. I'm going to make leaps and bounds in my research now with your data and DNA to compare with Vlad's. Here, your uncle wanted me to give you this." She handed him a present wrapped in black wrapping paper. It had an envelope addressed to him tied to it with green ribbon.

"Your welcome. And really, you know, you can call me "Danny"." Danny says.

"We'll see." she smiles. "And it was nice to meet the two of you, Sam and Tucker. See you all later." she drifts over to the ghost Portal and uninstalls that Ecto-filtrator she'd placed there earlier, waving it at the trio. "The vultures will quit in an hour or so."

"So what is it?" Tucker prompts Danny after the ghost woman leaves.

Danny excitedly tears into the present in reply, handing the letter to Sam to hold. The present, apparently, is inside a plain white box, and when Danny takes off the lid, he has no words.

"Wow Danny, you have the coolest uncle ever." Same say in awe, removing the shiny gold credit card from inside its box.

"Let me see the letter." Danny asks, assuming the reason for such a gift must be explain in it accompanying letter. She hands it over as she and Tucker continue looking over the card itself.

"Dude can I just have you uncle?" Tucker ask mopingly.

Danny sits down with a roll of his eyes, at one of the desks and opens the letter.

_Dear Daniel,_

_I hope you don't find offence in my offering you money in the form of this credit card, or feel it to be a bribe to win a good opinion of myself from you. It's simply that I know the expense of the damages that newly found Ghost Powers, and the presence of ghost in general, can cause. I want you to use this card in any situation you feel you need. For things to entertain yourself, like books or video games, just as much essentials like food, clothes, or school supplies. This is not something you need to pay back, or worry about spending too much of. I am a very rich man Little Badger, and money is meaningless unless you spend it._

_On another note I want you to know that while I fully plan on teaching all that I know in the time to come, I will not allow myself to be your excuse for falling school work, or troubles at home. I don't know how well you are at organization My Boy, but I suggest by noon next Saturday you have a majority of your school work and home chores finishes, or else you'll be spending our first lesson doing just that. I apologies if these terms are not to your liking, but you must know that in this time of your life being in the good graces of your authority figures is the best thing for you. I would personally suggest getting a day planner and using it._

_Until Next Saturday,_

_Vlad Masters_

Great. They hadn't even had their first lesson, and already he had Homework.


	3. Chapter 3

It's 10:14 in the morning, Sunday. Every muscle in Danny's body aches from yesterday's exertion, and he's staring at a bag of chip sitting at the kitchen table.

Vlad had said in his letter that the only condition for his training was keeping up with other responsibilities as priority. "Do your homework and listen to your parents and I'll teach you everything." that's all Vlad had meant.

Staring at the bag of chips he think on how Uncle Vlad hadn't said he needed to change anything about himself, and that he could probably eat the bag of chips for breakfast like he'd been planning. But he also thinks about how he does not lead the life of a normal teenage boy who gets to lounge around playing video games and putting nothing but junk in his system- his already half dead system- and suffer no consequences. Surely with the amount of physical exertion he was constantly putting his body under-both his bodies- it was probably better he didn't eat the bag of chips for breakfast. And surely a healthier diet would help with his training, right?

Yeah, it would. Better habits, better health, better student.

With a resigned but determined sigh, at 10:15 on Sunday morning, Danny puts the chips he'd so thoughtlessly gotten out of the pantry back where it belonged and made himself scrambled eggs for the first of many times to come.

The change of diet wasn't the only change Danny force himself into that week.

After he'd eaten breakfast he started again on the homework he hadn't gotten to do yesterday. Focusing was so hard. His mind keeps finding things to distract him. It took a good thirty minutes getting nothing done, when the panic that he can't do this start to set in he, tries listening to music like his sister, and even though he doesn't think she listened to Dumpty Humpty, she has the right idea. The music doesn't help him understand any better, but certainly kept focus longer.

He'd missed enough of his classes fighting ghost however that in each subject there were a majority of each work sheets left blank. He'd settled for texting his friends for their answers, and Googling the ones they didn't have either. By the time he'd managed to rewrite every answer so it looked like his own, and packed everything away in his backpack, it was 3:41 and he had such a headache. No chores where done that day.

On Monday Danny wakes up 6:30 and almost fall back asleep as soon as he turns off alarm. There's another alarm that goes off at 7:30 and he can make it to school by then too. He forces himself out of bed, mind sluggish and body protesting. He remember only when the bathroom doesn't open for him that Jazz is used to getting up this early and happily beat him to bathroom. Right. Gonna have to readjust to this schedule.

Jazz takes him to school, promising to do it any day he needs and he's one of the first people into the class.

"Well, good morning Mr. Fenton." Mr. Lancer answers Danny's yawn as he enters class.

Classes run smoothly until last period. There's barely fifteen minutes left in the lesson when his ghost sense goes off. He has neither Sam nor Tucker in this period so they can't come for back up if he left now, beside, fifteen minutes until the end of class his teacher wasn't going to let him go. So he makes a discussion, and sits there, and finished up the summary of his notes, albite very distractedly. He packs up before the bell rings, and rushes out ahead of everyone, but there's not recorded of him skipping out early. He'd gotten the answer to the only question on his science homework he could find anywhere in the textbook or the Internet, it was too late as the homework was turned in, but he knew it now at least.

He runs past his friend at their locker, dropping his bag at their feet with nothing more then "there's a ghost, gotta go." Before running to find it. The ghost is one he'd never met and it's embarrassingly easy to beat him.

"I'm so glad I didn't leave class for that," Danny says later in their booth at Nasty Burger, tucking his Uncle's card back in his almost empty wallet. "Seriously I wish my Ghost Sense could tell me how weak a ghost was before I waste my time with it."

"Well maybe your Uncle can teach you that too," Tucker offers, then sees Danny's tray "Dude... that's a salad."

"I know... I'm just sick of junk, I guess."

"What did you do to him?!" Tucker round of Sam jokingly. "How have you corrupted his fragile mind with your evil ways?!"

"I didn't do anything, maybe Danny just realized you can't survive on crap." Sam says defensively, taking a bit of her own salad.

When Tucker gives him a look, Danny says "She's not wrong, you saw bad I was at all those excessive Markey had me doing. If I didn't fight ghost I wouldn't care, but... I don't want chips for breakfast, and Nasty Burger for an afternoon snack to be the reason I can keep up with an enemy one day and it all goes to Hell you know?"

"Yeah, I get," Tucker answers then turns to Sam again "but I am not joining your evil little bandwagon"

"Health is_ not_ evil!"

The week rolls by faster than Danny anticipated and the Ghost Boy's faced three ghost, two of which he managed to wait until between classes and one of which was Skulker who he spent nearly the entirety of Wednesday night fighting.

Returning home one o'clock in the morning results in him being grounded "until further notice" and while he was tempted to simply sneak out as soon as he shut his bedroom door Thursday afternoon, he resigned himself to his punishment and takes the afternoon to drudge through his remaining homework. He finds it easier now with his solid week of class attendance and a voice in his head faintly reminds him he'd never had trouble with grades until he'd started ghost hunting.

Friday afternoon is spent doing chores and texting Sam and Tucker (his parents have no clue how to properly ground a child, for which Danny was grateful).

_So how's being grounded working out for you?_ Sam texts him while he's cleaning his room

_You're so lucky your parents don't know how to ground you. If it were mine I'd have total lockdown. No tech, no friends, and doing every chore they could think of. _Tucker adds to their group chat.

_Well, me and Jazz never got grounded when we were little, she still hasn't technically, so they wouldn't have any clue how it works. _Danny reply's before finishing reorganizing his desk draws.

_Well at least you know you're getting grounded for the greater good dude. I mean someone has to fight all the ghost are coming though. Right?_ Tucker supplies

_Speaking of ghosts-as if we ever aren't- how's being grounded gonna work when your uncle comes by?_ Sam asks.

Danny pauses. He hadn't thought of that. Unlike Dr. Markey who had made plans for her visit, his uncle had simple said he'd be over Saturday via ghost portal.

_I don't know! God I completely forgot! I don't even have a way of contacting him!_

There's a long pause- during which Danny abandons his cleaning efforts in favor of fretting- when Sam texts _Well don't worry about it. Just explain it to him tomorrow. You were probably gonna have to sneak off anyway, so it's not like it changes anything._

_But what if he gets upset I'm grounded and doesn't teach me because he came all the way for nothing?_

_Dude your Uncle's way too cool for that. I haven't even met the guy and I know that. _Tucker interjected.

_Yeah, beside if that's the case then he'll have learned his lesson, and give you an email or something._ Sam adds.

Danny wakes up early the next morning to finish any chore he thinks aren't done the best they could be, tries and fails to make an omelet, and heads down to the basement with a microwave-made bowl of oatmeal and a copy of Romeo and Juliet he was supposed to have started reading on Tuesday.

At 10:30ish he heard his parents bustling about the house and panickingly wonders if he was supposed to get them out of the house today too?

It's too late now, but he's hoping to catch Uncle Vlad down _here_ before anything can happen up _there._

His mom comes to check on him about the time Romeo and Tybalt are sword fighting, and he claims his room was getting a bit suffocating and he just needed somewhere else to read. She buys the excuse but Danny's focus is broken, and he waits with impatience until finally, _finally_, the figure of the only other half-ghost in existence appears through the Ghost Portal.

He was followed by another ghost in a long black coat with nothing for a face but two red eyes.

"Hey!" Danny calls, rising to meet the Ghosts.

"It's good to see you Daniel," Vlad says, wrapping one arm around Danny's shoulders in a half hug, and turning them both to introduce the younger half ghost to the grey blob.

"I'd like you to meet Amorpho," Vlad says. "He's going to be helping us today."

"Helping us with what?" Danny asks turning to the ghost in question holding out his hand in polite greeting "Hi, I'm Dann-"

A perfect replica of himself stands in front of Danny. He watches shocked as the ghost-and it must be the ghost- smiles, holding back laughter, and grabs his hand before he can snatch is away. "Hi Danny, so am I!"

"With you sneaking out, seeing as you being grounded." Uncle Vlad says, admonishment coloring his voice. "He's agreed to take your place for the day while we start your training."

"That's really cool- Wait!" Danny exclaimed in realization. "_How_ do you know I'm grounded? I had no way to tell you!"

Vlad rolled his eyes, and scoffed "Of course. She did tell you, that biology obsessed _nut!_ Can't remember anything!" under his breath then turned again to Danny "The Vultures were sent to watch over you, to tell me if anything happened, or to assist you if you needed My Boy. Dr. Markey was meant to tell you this, but evidently she forgot in the wake of studying your data." Danny thought his Uncle sound very resigned to what he'd just said. Like it happen too often to care anymore.

"Oh, okay. Well that's better then, like, tiny spy cameras all over my house-wait are _they_ in my house!?"

"No no, they've been told to stay out of your home unless personally invited in." Vlad reassure Daniel quickly. "I do hope she at least remembered the gift?"

"Oh, yeah she remembered that. Thanks by the way, I'm gonna put that thing to good use, I swear."

"Not that this isn't interesting, but I can't fulfill my half of the deal, Victor, unless you leave with the boy," Amorpho interrupted.

"Uh, his name's Vlad?" Danny corrects, confused.

"I'm good with faces, not names Billy." Amorpho says, rolling his perfect copy of Danny's eyes.

"It's "Danny"," Vlad corrects again, "but you're rights, so go up the boy's room and quietly sit there for the rest of the day. If he tells me later his parents were at all suspicious the deal's off."

Amorpho looks a little miffed as he turns to walk up the stairs, and Danny calls "There a book over on the counter-yeah that one. Just pretended to read that when they come check on you. Thank you!"

Vlad had Danny show his to the thick woods of Amity Park Central Park, and as they're flying through the sky Danny asks "So what kinda deal did you make with that guy?"

"Ah, we've had a long standing agreement. He used to go about both the human World and the Ghost Zone masquerading as myself, and it was driving me insane until I finally caught him. I will tell you now Daniel, I am not always the kindest person, and I persuaded him with more than words not to do so without my consent again. So now if ever I need his talents, he is granted a day in my shoes so-to-speak for every time he helps me."

Vlad can see it in Daniels face less than half an hour after the training officially starts. He's making an effort not to show it but Daniel is disappointed. The boy had clearly been expecting something more, certainly not running more drills, much the same as he'd done with Dr. Markey and Vlad regretted this. The truth was he'd never trained anyone in this before subject, in the subject of _ghost powers,_ and he was stalling, trying to find what Daniel needed work on that Vlad _could_ help him with. At the very least something had to get done today.

The boy truly was a prodigy though. Less than three months with his ghost powers and honestly he was capable of so much more than Vlad had been.

But he's bored, because of course ectoplasmic blasts, and invisibility were nothing new. What the boy needed was stimulation. Vlad hopes he knows what he'd doing.

He watches Daniel from above for another second more as he attacks one immobile clone after another before Vlad charges his own pink ectoplasm around his hand and firing it at the boy. He narrowly misses the boys shoulder, as was his intent, and Daniel dodged on instinct, a perfect mid-air role to the side. He looks up at Vlad with confusion written all over his face, but before his can question the billionaire, Vlad says "fight me" and fires at Daniel again.

Daniel takes this demand in stride and flies straight up at Vlad, who decides it will be easier for the both of them, to take the fight into the clear autumn sky. This keeps them out of range of any unsuspecting civilians and makes it easy for Vlad to study Daniel's abilities in a much more practical setting.

At the same time, because they need not focus on anything but each other, no civilians to protect, no buildings to dodge, and now were to hide the fight becomes very straightforward. Daniel attacks aggressively, Vlad dodges, Vlad attacks sneakily, Daniel sees it coming and dodges. Vlad attacks with clones, and Daniel turns intangible or invisible to avoid the duel attacks, Daniel attacks, Vlad uses a shield. It becomes all too boring for Vlad very quickly, because there's no thought behind it, no strategy. But Daniel's having fun, and Vlad is understanding better from here where Daniel needs help then he could ever hope to from just watching the boy.

Late in the afternoon Daniel avoids another direct punch from Vlad via his intangibility, but rather than resume his form and continue fighting he say "Can we take a break?" in an exhausted tone of voice that only confirmed what Vlad had suspected.

"Of course Dear Boy." Vlad says lowering his fists and relaxing into more comfortable hovering position. "Really I think that's enough for the day, we've been out nearly-" he looks down at the town below, at the clock tower "-dear me, three hours. Yes, we're definitely done for the day."

"What?! No we don't have to quit. I just need a break." and there's that look of disappointment on Daniel's face again.

"It's not like I'm leave just yet Daniel, I only thinks we've done enough _physical_ training for the day." He starts to float lower, and Daniel followed, "I've still got plenty to _teach_ you."

"Aw, is this gonna turn into school?" Daniel's shoulders droop.

"You didn't really think it was all going to be physical training, did you Daniel?"

"Welllll... maybe?" He says smiling guiltily.

Vlad stops when they hit the ground, standing to watch Daniel, who hovers in front of him at eye level.

"Surely you have questions about, about things Daniel. About what types of ghosts there are. What type of ghost you are?"

"I didn't know there were different types..." Daniel says, looking almost ashamed.

"Well that's precisely my point Little Badger. I'm going to teach you _everything. _Now where's the nearest book store? There' a wonderful collection by a man named Arthur Carter. He's about as accurate as they get when it comes to ghost behavior and in the later volumes his theories on the form and qualities of the Ghost Zone are eerily on point."

Instead of the complaint that almost forms on the tip of Danny's tongue he nods and follows his Uncle's example of reverting back to his human half, as they leave to woods and head for the bookstore.


End file.
